With the collapse of the dot.coms and the downturn in the economy, agencies are reconsidering their interactive advertising capabilities and alliances. Many are pulling new media activity in-house and others are integrating their stand-alone interactive divisions with the agency as a whole. Initiative Media North America did that recently when it formed what it calls IM121, which houses not only direct response and other diversified services operations, but also the agency’s online entity, Fastbridge Communications, and what used to be called IM.Com, its in-house online buying unit.

On the advertiser side, the jury is split on this issue. When asked “does your media planning/buying resource also handle your online media efforts,” slightly more than half (53 percent) of the respondents indicate that they turn to resources other than their media planning/buying supplier for their online media efforts. Leading categories in this area include Pharmaceutical (90 percent of respondents in this category use a resource other than their media planner and/or buyer for online advertising); Telecommunications and Entertainment/Publishing/Retail, both at 63 percent; and Computers/Technology at 62 percent.

The largest advertisers, however, prefer to integrate their online with their mainstream media activities. This includes the Automotive (65 percent) and Food & Beverage/Packaged Goods (50 percent) categories. No other category registers more than 40 percent in answering “yes” to the question of whether or not online advertising is handled by their mainstream media resource.